Friday, January 18, 2008

Patience and Perseverence

It's high time I stop waiting for some sort of healing or thunderbolt of creativity! I've gotta take these matters into my own hands!

I want not to be clinically "night owlish," and I want to get paid to play with yarn.

Here's what I'm a-gonna do. I got up early this morning to go to breakfast, but I got up earlier than usual because Dan also got up early, and he had to leave sooner than I did. So I had time to get all spiffied up and knit before going out to my warmed-up car (thanks, Dan!). It felt good to be up-an'-at-'em, so I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow. There are a few people coming over for breakfast tomorrow morning, so I'm going to get up early, get the house spiffied up, and make cinnamon buns (an extra-special treat I hadn't planned on). Getting up early will create the illusion of having more time at home to knit and whatnot, and it will over-correct my night owlishness by getting me all tuckered out nice and early so I can go to bed at a decent hour (to be able to get up early, so I can go to bed early--it's a cycle; you get the idea).

And the other thing I'm going to do: I'm going to finish up all these patterns I'm knitting and then start making stuff for commercial use. Two parts: I'm going to start preparing for a craft fair (which I think will be a lot more successful than my last attempt in a crappy li'l Maine mall on the day of the biggest freak snow storm we had all year, plus I have madder skillz now), and I'm going to start designing my own patterns. I've got the top-down raglan sweater pretty much all figured out, so I think I can start playing around with that and come up with some pretty fabulous garments.

I can't believe how easy knitting has become over the last month as I've stretched my imagination, creativity, and courage. There's really nothing to it, and the next logical step for me to expand my skills (or skillz, if you don't mind) is to start designing. I keep thinking that I wish I had started this sooner; I'd be so much farther ahead. But then I remember: I'm still ridiculously young, and I don't plan on croaking any time soon.

In completely (kind of) unrelated news, I just this second found a new blog to add to my Reader. Yarn Ball Boogie is fabulous, and this opinion is based on the only post I've read, which is about the most fabulous scarf I have ever seen (and I am making one, goshdarnit!). I can't wait to browse the rest of his posts!

(Oddly, I've been kind of obsessed with scarfs the last couple of days.)

I'm also really fascinated by men who play with yarn. The guy at Yarn Ball Boogie is...a guy, and I found him through The Panopticon (also a dude). I think it's super neat, and I think the other sex can offer an interesting approach and perspective to hand-made fashion.

Plus, it's just good to see knitting stigmas blown farther out of the water.

Oh, I LOVE knitting early in the morning. Only, now I have to leave my apartment at 7:30 am, so knitting before work is no longer a possibility (because I really can't wake up before 6:30...seriously).

I, too, love big vertical striped crocheted scarves. I've been meaning to make one for the past few years...